


Slicing Free

by ozymandias314



Category: Descendants (2015)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Transphobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-05-16 12:45:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5829445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ozymandias314/pseuds/ozymandias314
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mal wasn't a boy. Unfortunately, some other people were confused about this point.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slicing Free

The first person Mal told was Jay. 

If people had friends on the Isle of the Lost, Jay would have been Mal’s oldest friend. As it was, together they stole things, pulled pranks, picked fights, committed minor acts of vandalism, and occasionally even went to school. They betrayed each other, of course, but never about anything important. 

She told him on a sun-drenched summer afternoon, which they spent half-naked in Jay’s bed, lazily kissing, while Jay’s dad shouted at lamps downstairs.

“I don’t think I’m actually a guy.”

“Oh,” Jay said, his head in the crick of her arm. “You’re like Ursula?”

“Yeah,” Mal said. “Except I’m not an octopus.”

“Too bad,” Jay said. “I could definitely use some tentacle sex.”

It was weak to ask, but even so-- “You don’t mind?”

“Nah,” Jay said. “Everyone trusts a girl more than a guy, you’ll be great at standing guard. And I like kissing girls too.” He grinned roguishly, flipped her over, and pinned her on the bed. “Speaking of--”

\--

“Mom,” Mal said. Maleficent ignored her in favor of continuing to torment the goblin. Mal raised her voice. “Mom! I have something important to tell you.”

“What is it, darling?” Maleficent said. “Do I have to talk to your Evil Plots teacher again? No child of mine is getting less than an A in that class, regardless of how little he shows up. As I’ve always said, practical experience is worth--”

“More important than that,” Mal said. She took a deep breath and braced herself. “I’m a girl.”

It took a moment to sink in, then Maleficent’s face broke into a huge smile. “Mal, I’m so proud of you!” She opened her arms wide for a hug. “Are you still called Mal?”

“Yeah,” Mal said, her face pressed against her mother’s chest. “It’s just-- not short for Malcolm anymore.”

“It can be short for Maleficent!” Maleficent said, pressing kisses onto Mal’s forehead. “Oh, Mal, I am so happy. This is everything I’ve always wanted. I always knew you were just like me.”

Mal felt a warm glow in the center of her chest. She had never been approved of before. 

\--

When they heard the news that they were getting off the Isle of the Lost, Mal was worried. She’d watched enough of the two TV channels they got on the Isle of the Lost to know that girls were supposed to be girls, boys were supposed to be boys, and no one was supposed to decide around their fourteenth year that, all things considered, they’d like to switch categories.

But no one in Auradon had bothered to pay that much attention to the people they’d left on the Isle of the Lost to rot. She looked like a girl now, and that was enough for them. 

The first spell she cast was cast in whispers, as soon as they passed the bubble that blocked all magic in the Isle of the Lost, Jay and Carlos’s rambunctiousness distracting the driver exactly as she’d planned. Mal knew it was reckless, risky. It would have only been a couple hours before she was alone, in private, safe. And if she were discovered, instead of ruling the world by her mother’s side, she would wind up trapped forever in the Isles of the Lost with a pissed off-- and, worse, disappointed-- Maleficent.

That didn’t seem like a very persuasive argument. 

The book opened easily to the correct page; she’d spent enough time reading the words over and over again, the yearning so intense in her heart she felt like she would faint. Her stomach was tense with excitement. “Darkness’s knife and passion’s curl,” she whispered, “turn my body into that of a girl.”

\--

A week later, Mal decided that all things considered she liked her dick, and put it back. 

“Nice,” Evie said, watching Mal change. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but--”

“Well,” Mal said, “it’s significantly harder to get you to shut up by shoving a pussy in your mouth.”

\--

“This unit,” Fairy Godmother said cheerfully, “will be about appropriate behavior for your sex! This is a tremendously important lesson. Imagine if we had princes wearing dresses and going to balls, and princesses rescuing people from dragons with swords! It would be utter chaos!” 

“Didn’t Mulan fight with a sword?” Carlos asked. “I think that was a pretty important thing that she did.”

“In extreme circumstances such as those of Mulan,” Fairy Godmother said, “it is permissible to behave in a way inappropriate for your sex. But such exceptions do not change the tremendous importance of sex in one’s day-to-day behavior. We will cover the appropriate circumstances for sex nonconformity in Advanced Goodness-- that is, if you ever get that far.”

Mal had been getting the hang of Remedial Goodness, and while she didn’t think she was quite ready for the advanced material yet, she figured that ‘appropriate circumstances’ probably didn’t include “I really, really wanted to.”

“So, the first question,” Fairy Godmother said, “if I am a man, and I see a beautiful dress in a window, I should (a) buy it and wear it, (b) buy it as a present for a female relative, or © go into the store to see whether they have excellent men’s clothing as well? Mal, why don’t you answer?”

There went her plan of keeping her head down and not talking until this was over. 

“Buy it and wear it,” Mal said, knowing that with each word both her grade and her favor in Fairy Godmother’s eyes was falling, but unable to bring herself to care. “Because it’s just cloth, and you deserve to be happy and have beautiful things if you want them.”

“No, Mal.” The worst thing was Fairy Godmother’s patience: no matter what Mal did, she’d think Mal was merely ignorant, as opposed to someone who understood and disagreed. “The correct answer is © go into the store to see whether they have excellent men’s clothing as well. Dresses are women’s clothing, and men cannot wear them.”

“Why?” Mal asked. Her jaw hurt from how hard she was gritting it. Under the table, Jay put a steadying hand on her knee. 

“It is important that everyone know whether you’re a woman or a man,” Fairy Godmother said. ”Women and men are both equal, of course, but they’re just fundamentally different.”

“I think it’s creepy,” Mal said, “that you want me to tell everyone what my genitals look like.”

“Mal!” Fairy Godmother said, shocked. “We don’t talk about-- that topic-- in class! This unit has clearly come just in time!”

“Yes, we are,” Mal said, “you’re just pretending we aren’t, because if there’s one thing that’s true about being good, it’s that you’re all a bunch of hypocrites.”

“Womanhood and manhood go down very deep,” Fairy Godmother said, “to the essence of our very being. They are fundamental to what makes us human-- and fairy, mermaid, and dwarf, of course. They aren’t just about-- that.” She sniffed. “And because this lesson is apparently quite difficult for you, I’ll ignore that last comment.”

Mal wouldn’t have so many problems with fundamental essences of manhood-- well, she would, but they would mostly be like her problems with not cursing people because they didn’t invite you to parties-- if everyone didn’t constantly insist that she had to have one. 

“Next question,” Fairy Godmother said. “Which of these occupations are appropriate for a woman? (a) blacksmith, (b) seamstress, or © mason?” 

After class was over, Mal spent a pleasant two hours ripping pages out of her Remedial Goodness textbook, crumpling them up, and throwing them against the wall. 

\--

“Ben,” she said, after the coronation. “I should tell you something, and I want you to-- to not get angry, or disgusted, or banish me to the Isles of the Lost to rot forever, or anything else that’s your first instinct. I didn’t tell you this before because-- well, because I’d thought I’d have taken over the world by then, and so it wasn’t very important, but--”

Ben smiled. “Whatever it is, I won’t love you any less.”

Mal doubted it. Visions of Remedial Goodness class danced in her head. “Ben, I-- I have a penis.”

“You’re a man?” Ben said. 

“No,” Mal said. “I’m a girl. I’ve always been a girl. I just… have some anatomical differences.”

“Was there a curse?” Ben asked seriously. 

Mal shook her head. This wasn’t working. How could she explain this to an Auradonian? He’d never seen a man wear a skirt, and now she was trying to explain to him that women had dicks?

It would have been so much easier to give herself a vulva and to never tell him. But she was trying to be good now. And one thing she had picked up while she was in Auradon is that good people told the truth. 

Fairy Godmother would have wanted her to say she was a man. But that would have been lying too. And just because she taught goodness didn't make her an expert on what it was.

“No,” Mal said finally, “I was born with a body like yours. I did a spell to change it to a girl’s. And then I decided I liked having a penis and I put it back.”

“But you’ve always been a girl. That wasn’t because of the spell,” Ben said, clarifying. Mal nodded. “Just a girl with a guy’s body?”

“Something like that.”

“Okay,” Ben said. His smile never wavered. “I don’t understand. But you are the same person you’ve always been, and I love you very much, and-- I don’t have to understand to believe. I hope you can teach me.” 

Mal smiled. “We can do that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Sarah Waters's Tipping the Velvet: "It was not like she was cutting hair, it was as if I had a pair of wings beneath my shoulder-blades, that the flesh had all grown over, and she was slicing free."


End file.
